Economy help

Economy help

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Posts: 89

Apr 26 10 11:50 AM

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I need some help filling the coffers. I'm only taking an average of 6000 credits profit each turn. Looking at my balance summary, I take an average of 21,000 each turn of which 14,000 goes on miltary upkeep. I've upgraded all my farms and trading with all the nations I'm not currently at war with. Playing as Britain I need to build an army to invade India but just can't afford it. 95% of my troops are stationed in America on garrison duties to stop the Spanish and American nations from taking my lands, so I can't really cut back on the military expentiture there.

Take control of trade routes and conquer the pirate holdings. Launch a campaign against the native americans until they no longer pose a significant threat, and if the netherlands falls, liberate Ceylon from the rebels there. It can make a launch pad for the invasion of India.

Other suggestions are feign friendship with the Maratha, maybe you can take one of the last Mughal holdings to use as a launch pad as well. Or even Persia. For the first part of the 1700's focus around getting strong, India can wait until the latter half of the 1700's.

The problem with North American regions is that they don't have a lot to offer in terms of natural resources but they require a lot to defend. A way to get some quick money in your situation is to use some small forces to capture the Carribean islands for sugar and coffee plantations while destorying the priates. When that's clear, you will have plenty of resouces to trade without pirate's harressment. Go to South American once you have the Carribean secured and you will have access to the gold mines and spices.

India will be a major undertaking and will require at least two full stacks. If you are at war with Spain and France already, I would take them out first as their navy could cripple your economy when you are fightin in India.

I would leave the rest of North America to the last. They just don't generate enough revenues.

You can go ahead and capture the Spanish colonies and the Indian nations, then go to India if you like. There are several rich regions held by Spain. Take them, especially New Spain and Mexico. You should be able to afford whatever you want to do then.

If, like Geoncidal Pacifist you find the North American territories too costly to maintain, you can try handing them to your protectorate, thirteen colonies and let them adminster it, while you control some strategic strongholds only.

basically if you have your tax on anything higher than the two lowest tiers, your gonna run into problems right about 1715, low tax equals big spenders living in your cities. North america is a cash cow, if you dont tax the !@*! out of it and cause a rebellious outpour and expenses.

Trade fleets and naval prowess is more a tool for the turtle-er, one I highly endorse, expansion, unless it is in a weak monarchy, is always met with great disdain, especially in or against republics.

patience is a virtue, especially in TW, the spoils of war are alot easier to come by with a good savings account and a keen eye for opportunistic expansion.

Trade is especially important in the early game to enable you to lower tax rates for economic and population growth. That may not be feasible once you started fighting. You don't need a big fleet to protect your trade routes, just enough to ship troops for land invasions (i.e., taking out France by eliminating them from the European arena). Once France and Spain are under control, you will have the sea.

Occassional trade raids will have little impact on your economy if you have a huge volume of cotton, coffee, sugar, tobacco and spices which are all available in the Carribean and South America. If you have enough trade partners (both land and sea routes) and resouces, you never have to tax any of your citizen ever again.

Can't really add much except go for the ivory trade nodes in south africa. They provide alot of income due to its high price on the market. Usually pirates don't operate there but your ships still need defending, obviously.

The central american regions are wealthy - but you have to take them from Spain. If you're navy is capable enough, you should look at taking the pirate regions, and the eastern most regions in the Caribean. Then you can pick off the Spanish regions in central america at will, so long as you isolate them, and north america, from Spain.

The north american regions can become very profitable, but it does take a long time to build there, and if you are fragmented taking and holding them is a real issue.

My general game play is to put the northern indians in their place fairly smartly from the outset - that means definitely the Iroquois, and maybe the Huron. You need to consider the French issue - if you can clear the St Lawrence of the French, you are home and hosed. It gives you good profitable lands, a major trade port, and a well developed city which can churn out your quality units. Plus it gives you the ability to rapidly shift forces anywhere along it via your navy - this means you can reinforce all the way from the north eastern seaboard through to the great lakes area, and into the western regions.

I would consider that if you have an army the size you are talking about, you should be able to pick off the Native American factions one by one. I tend to leave the Cherokee till last, as they can be a tough nut to crack if you still have the Louisiana territories under French control - and that is the trick to the Cherokee. Once you have Cuba and Louisiana, you have the Cherokee surrounded, and they have to protect themselves, rather than driving into the Thirteen Colonies.

Edit:

One good stack of units should be able to drive all the way along the Caribean coast from the Louisiana territories to central america - sure, it takes time, but the area is wealthy. A good way to do it is to have a stack for combat, a smaller stack for occupation, and build garrisons as you go. Basically, your 'occupation' stack should ideally consist of colonial dragoons, to take advantage of their garrison bonus. Essentially, take the town/city with your assault force - and replace your losses. Then move them out to go off and fight, and move your occupation force in - watch the public order figures - as things get repaired or upgraded (or burnt down if they are Catholic buildings and replaced with Protestant churces), the public order level improves, which eventually reaches the point where you can locally build the garrison, and you then move out your occupation force. Remember to burn the churches and the schools/universities (you really don't need to have 6 or 7 universities in your empire), and build something worthwhile, like factories, etc.

The other thing you need to do is check each region when you capture it - some of them retain the 'no taxation' setting that the previous faction had. Be prepared to juggle your taxation/etc. Sometimes it's worthwhile to tax exempt a region to build up the public order. Remember that because you needed a town garrison of 5 units immediately after taking a region, you may not need it ten turns later, so you can demobilise many of those units.

The big cost to GB in any campaign is having a sea based empire. You need ships, you need bases to build or repair them, and you need trade. Don't rely on resource intensive income generators, such as raiding. Although it's a good money spinner, it requires the ships to remain on station, unable to do anything else, and when you go to peace with the faction/s you are raiding, you lose that income. You should consider having light single ships posted throughout your sea areas - they aren't there to fight, they are there to let you know what's around. Stationing a decent battle fleet, using '74s, in each of your sea areas allows to you counter attempts to raid you or to destroy your trade fleets. Although this is a drain, while you have enemies that can field strong fleets, it's necessary.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you need large forces everywhere on garrison duties. Sure, it's nice to instantly react to rebellion or incursion, but you don't need to. If it takes you five turns to react to a rebellion, but it saves you two to three thousand gold per turn in upkeep, then I prefer to opt for the slower response.